A Forbidden History.The Hadrian enigma

by George Gardiner

  CHAPTER 27

  "Explain yourself, Lysias of Bithynia! We are Caesar's investigators into the death of your companion Antinous!" Suetonius demanded sharply. He aimed to impress Clarus with his determination.

  "You dare to put yourselves above the law! You, Lysias, only yesterday swore under oath you would attend our interview today. You did not! Your claim to arete, to honor, is the worthless promise of a dissembler and hypocrite!"

  "You also offend against the Imperium!" Clarus added menacingly.

  "Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen," Salvius Julianus interceded, "perhaps he had good reasons which we should hear first?"

  "Noble sirs," Lysias stammered, "Thais and I were attacked late last night at our chambers. Ruffians with drawn swords fell upon us. Our worthy steward, my freedman Simon, was brutally killed before our very eyes. I grabbed Thais by the arm and dragged her to safety while the wounded Simon fought to hold off the attackers. I had no weapon to defend us other than a small dagger, so Simon was cut down without honor.

  I fled with Thais by an evasive route to come here to the Companions' enclosure for sanctuary; otherwise we too would have been killed. I'm sure we were the intended targets"

  "Nevertheless, why didn't you attend this morning's interview?!" Clarus demanded.

  "Perhaps more importantly, Septicius," Suetonius interjected, "who is making attacks against members of this investigation, and why? And where are this camp's military protectors? Where are the Guard or even men of the Legion? Where are they when you need them? They seem to be everywhere when you don't need them."

  Clarus shifted tack in his examination.

  "Explain why Nubians are pursuing you, Lysias of Bithynia? What do you know or possess to sufficiently incite Nubians to kill you? And whose Nubians are they, anyway?"

  Lysias was dismayed.

  "Nubians? What Nubians? I don't know what you mean!"

  "We've had it on good authority you said you were attacked by Nubians," Clarus responded, keeping Scorilo's earlier words in mind.

  "No, my lord, this is not so. Though the troublemakers were disguised behind mantles and cowls, the skin of their arms was not the darkness of Nubians nor Egyptians, and their weapons were either Roman, Greek, or of the northern barbarians," Lysias announced. "Even their open-lace boots were military issue, not peasant work, I saw clearly."

  Suetonius, Clarus, and Julianus looked towards each other questioningly.

  "Renegade troops? Bandits? Undercover operatives?" Clarus asked rhetorically.

  "And finally, Lysias," Suetonius probed further, "how do you explain your journey to The Alexandros on the evening prior to Antinous's death? You are recorded in the vessel's traffic sheets as having boarded the vessel in the company of a Guardsman late in the evening of the day of Antinous's death? You did not mentioned this to us earlier!"

  Suetonius halted momentarily when Strabon coughed politely and pointed to the furled sheet in his tablets and scrolls basket. Suetonius continued.

  "And perhaps accompanied by another senior officer too? Yet there is no record of your return from the vessel that night or the following day, which we assess may have been the time of your friend's death?"

  Clarus glanced quizzically at the biographer at mention of the further officer while Lysias expressed utter dismay if not actual offence.

  "I have no idea what you are talking about. I've never been aboard either The Alexandros or The Dionysus in my life. My status doesn't entitle me. I've never been invited, by anyone, either. I was nowhere in the vicinity of the two Imperial barques on the day or night of my companion's death, so how can you believe otherwise?"

  "Can you prove this? This paper record is our irrevocable proof. It says you provided a written invitation from the lady Anna Perenna as your pass authority. What can it mean? Are you involved in a secret dalliance with the Governor's consort?" Suetonius demanded. "The clerk described your youthful qualities and presence very adequately."

  Lysias appeared visibly confounded by the queries.

  "Sirs, I have had no reason to go anywhere near the two barques, and I have never ever conversed with the Governor's consort, ever!"

  Two servants of the Companions appeared at the terrace entrance carrying lamps and tapers for the coming evening's illumination. Dusk was now falling and it was time to provide light in anticipation of a swift Egyptian sunset. Julianus nodded to his staff to place the lamps and depart for privacy's sake.

  "Bithynian, if I recall correctly, you told this investigation yesterday how Antinous was faithful to the emperor and didn't sleep around with those who solicited his favors? I recall you said the youth only slept with his lover.

  Yet we now hear your companion has been intimate with a manumitted slave, the Cyrene female Thais, and has been so for some time. She might even be pregnant from his attentions."

  Clarus was not known for subtlety in dealing with intimate details.

  Thais cringed. Lysias heaved a despondent sigh.

  "My lord, yes, you repeat my words correctly. I said he only slept with those who love him," the strapping young man confirmed. "But Great Caesar relinquished his role as erastes to Antinous many weeks ago at Alexandria. This was weeks before our flotilla sailed the Delta canals into Egypt's interior. Since that time Antinous has again only slept with those who love him, but now it is no longer Caesar. Nevertheless, it seems on the day before his death my long-time friend made a point of special sharing with each of those who loved him, even some who did not expect the honor — "

  "Special sharing? Each? What do you mean by each? Your meaning, Bithynian, is he had sex with those who loved him?" Suetonius repeated. "After all it's sex we're talking about, isn't it?"

  Surisca made a discreet gesture to the biographer and leaned forward to whisper some words. Surisca reminded the Special Investigator of a matter from their earlier observations. Suetonius reacted with new interest. Yes, there had been two sets of lesions at Antinous's neck and throat, not just one, he belatedly recalled.

  "Tell us, Lysias, why do you word your statement so generically?" he asked. "You say he, Antinous, only had sex with those who love him? Are you saying there is more than one supplicant to his affections?"

  Lysias paused before replying. He was discomforted by the question. His voice was strained.

  "On the night and day preceding the night of his death Antinous indeed slept with and made love to one who loves him, and who I believe he too loved. This was his freedwoman Thais. However, it is also true how later in the afternoon of the same day preceding his death he shared his arete and his body with another, too, who loves him."

  "And who would this further paramour be?" Suetonius asked in exasperation. "The Augusta herself?"

  "No, of course not, my lords," he murmured softly, "but it was who you have probably contemplated it may have been all along."

  The group was frozen in anticipation.

  "It was I myself."

  They stood silently for some moments.

  "Are you saying," Clarus offered frankly after a pause; "you and Caesar's eromenos have been lovers all along? So you've been lying to us, yes? Some form of laesa majestas offence is committed here, if not capital perjury!"

  "No, sir, I assure you Antinous was indeed faithful to Caesar! Antinous and I were not partners, regular or occasional — not since our adolescence long ago, anyway. But it seems in Antinous's final twenty-four hours he chose to favor both Thais and I. He did so with each separately and at that time unknown to each other," Lysias revealed. "However, neither of us knew of this, nor that this was to be his final day. He left hints to that possibility without us being wise enough to realize it."

  "Hints? What hints?"

  "At the time I wondered at his urgency," Lysias continued. "His desire to favor me after so many years seemed precipitous, especially as at that time no such thought had entered my mind.

  But he seduced me, purposely, unquestioningly, intentionally, and very successfully. It was untypical o
f him, it was unexpected and unexplained, but I cannot honestly say it was unwelcome. He fulfilled a lingering desire I had harbored since our Polis days, but had never experienced so completely previously. I had forgotten how devoted I was to him.

  Yet in a moment of deep closeness between us, at a moment of powerful impact, he took pains to beg of me that would I look after Thais on his behalf. He sought I should protect her and her progeny should anything untoward befall him. He didn't explain what he meant, despite my protestation, but he implied I should make Thais my wife if he met with misfortune. He extracted my holy oath by Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and Aphrodite that I would fulfill his plea. He was adamant.

  In the intense passion of the occasion I willingly swore to do as he asked. And I certainly will, if Thais agrees," Lysias explained while Thais kept her eyes lowered. "Yet at that time I had no idea what was to occur through the following hours."

  Suetonius probed further.

  "Did you, Lysias of Bithynia, during moments of your ardor, also inflict lesions upon his features?"

  "Lesions?!"

  "Love bites, hickeys, bruises from kisses?"

  "Um, yes, I guess so."

  "And what of a wound to his wrist? His left wrist. Did you inflict such a wound?"

  "What wound? There was no wound." Lysias was quite certain.

  Clarus broke the stillness.

  "What is it," Clarus asked vaguely rhetorically, "this dead young man possessed which inspires such ardor among admirers?" The pause survived only briefly.

  "As I said earlier, sir, it is beauty, my lord," Thais volunteered. "A beauty of character, a beauty of spirit, a beauty of humanity. Beauty, too, of form and shape, but this was not the primary beauty. It would pass soon into time. Antinous was a beguiling personality whose openness communicated sincerity, security, and wholeheartedness. His spirit was alive to life and love!"

  She fell silent after her outburst, embarrassed by her own emotion. Lysias was moved enough to take up her theme.

  "Truly, sirs, he possessed such a personable appeal. This charisma was coupled with an extraordinary magnificence of body, and visage as a living creature. Antinous was Apollo Incarnate, he was Apollo alive in this world, here, now, with us to see and touch today. He was not distant, out of reach, silent.

  Old philosophers tell we Greeks how human beauty is a reflection of the divine among us. Yet unlike remote Apollo or the fearful deities of the Levant, Antinous possessed an emotional warmth no god displays to devotees. For Antinous, love must be tangible and active. In him, it was, generously."

  The group was silenced by these quaint sentiments. Clarus emitted a nervous burst of laughter.

  "You are talking of a mere Favorite, a decorative appendage to the Caesar of all the Romans," Clarus provoked. "A ruler's toy or plaything, his catamite, a mere bugger-boy. Something to screw at night."

  Lysias suppressed his rising anger.

  "Sirs, I see in Antinous what I myself would like to be, but am not. Antinous accepted to be Hadrian's eromenos not in childlike subservience or in willing submission to a power fuck, but because of his respect and affection for the man Hadrian. Does age really matter if you love someone? Yes, it's true his relationship with Caesar placed him at the heart of the universe, at the heart of our times. But it survived because the man Hadrian had matching needs and character.

  Yes, by becoming companion to Caesar he entered into his own legend, his own Homeric saga. He could echo Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, and Alexander rolled into one, but alive now, today, in our times, not just in dusty scrolls. Antinous brought delight into the hearts of all who knew him."

  "This is nonsense," Clarus probed sarcastically. "What has he done with his life? What has he achieved? He was a Homeric hero who enacted no heroism."

  "You may think so, sir. Yet he existed alive before our eyes to show us how what matters in life is not who or what one loves, it is the very fact of being able to love, the act of loving and being loved. Sex is a stepping stone to that realization. This revelation is enough for those who were captivated by him. I happily was such a one, and I believe too Great Caesar is."

  "Do you, Greek, love him too?"

  "Yes, sir, I do."

  "Tell me, Lysias of Bithynia, is there anyone centered in your life other than Thais, or do you impose on your slaves or engage in other diversions for bodily satisfaction?" the biographer continued.

  "No, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, there are neither slaves nor 'diversions' in my life," Lysias replied. "I offer my four-year relationship as eromenos to my erastes Lucius Vibullius Tiberius Claudius Herodes Atticus of Athens as evidence of my honorable morals. Our lengthy liaison was concluded only last year at Rome.

  I ceased being his eromenos just prior to Herodes' announcement of his marriage to Annia Regilla of the Annii, a worthy and noble patrician family of Rome," Lysias regaled his inquisitors.

  "I see you are indeed a man of passion? You agree then, Bithynian, you may have inflicted lesions of passion upon your school chum's neck on the day of his death?" Suetonius probed unhesitatingly. "At the front?"

  Lysias blushed beneath his soldierly, suntanned features. "It's possible. Very possible."

  "Well that satisfies that issue," Clarus muttered to his colleagues with a nod to Surisca for her earlier perceptiveness, "we've accounted for two sets on the cadaver's neck at last."

  "Why do you suppose Antinous would grace both you and the Cyrene with his favors, as you call it, on the day of his drowning?" Suetonius searched. "Did he know he was about to die?"

  "I do not know," Lysias replied. "But in looking back at his urgency as well as the promise he extracted from me, he must have had some premonition of his fate.

  Whatever it was, I wish he had shared his fears with those who love him, and not face it alone, whatever it may have been."

  "Foreknowledge tells us it was no accident," Suetonius declared. "I don't accept he had foreknowledge from soothsayers or diviners. Foreknowledge means either he was an intentional suicide or had reason to expect to be killed. So who are those who wished Antinous to be dead? Or did Antinous wish himself to be dead? This is the basic question of our enquiry now. Also, who benefits from it?"

  Salvius Julianus interjected.

  "To that you then have to add why unknown renegades would seek the death of his associates afterwards, including even those engaged upon his death's investigation. This apparently includes even me. Overall, there are hidden forces at work in each supposition. Hidden forces suggests to me miscreants at work, not suicide. "

  "Which indicates it was murder," Suetonius added. "At least that much seems unarguable. Yet what is the motive? And who is the perpetrator?"

  Salvius Julianus spoke.

  "Do realize you have less than nine hours until your appointment with Caesar?"

  "It's true," Clarus agreed, "our time allowance is passing swiftly. And we're no closer to a solution to our investigation than we were a day ago."

  "Yet, friends," Suetonius murmured, "I see an outline appearing in the midst of the murk. I don't know its importance or accuracy, but several notions are taking shape in my mind.

  Perhaps next on our list of interviewees should be that Egyptian priest whose name recurs so interminably in our enquiries?"

  "Pachrates of Memphis?" Clarus trumpeted. "Let's pay him a visit, despite the late hour!"

  "Let's do so," the biographer declared. "But first, Julianus, I have a very big favor to ask of you. In case we are delayed by our interviews before tomorrow's dawn, I wish to seek your assistance in a legal acquisition on our behalf with your lictors. This is my request. Keep it concealed, it's important. So I'll tell you, just between us, in a moment.

  I also ask your Companions and grooms to secure the safety of Lysias and Thais until dawn and escort them to Caesar's ceremony. I want them to meet no further harm."

  "It will be done, Tranquillus, it will be done."

  "Good then, here's my chore for you — "

 
; Clarus, Surisca, and the others watched as the Special Inspector drew Julianus to one side to murmur privately into his ear.

  CHAPTER 28

  "Fine gentlemen of Rome, this is an unexpected and welcome visitation!" the exceedingly polite Egyptian priest declared while his features expressed contradictory sentiments. His feigned conviviality was confirmed by his loose night tunic, smudged kohl around his eyes, and crumpled appearance indicating he had been disturbed in his sleep.

  "On behalf of the high priest of Amun, Pachrates of Memphis, I apologize for our inability to offer you proper neighborliness at this late hour," Kenamun said. His manner was not inviting.

  "Why so, Priest? We are here on Caesar's business," Clarus demanded.

  "My lord Senator, Priest Pachrates resides tonight at the Temple of Amun beyond this camp. He and his acolytes are preparing for the ceremonies ordained by Great Caesar at dawn today. Only I and a visiting elder of our cult, with our attendants, remain here at our tents within the Imperial camp."

  Kenamun, the priestly mortician embalmer, regaled his visitors with low bows and elaborate eastern genuflections while a temple guard hovered nearby marshalling an assegai spear held ready for action.

  "Dawn today? Is it already approaching the new day?" Suetonius asked.

  "Yes, Senator. Dawn is in five hours," the priest responded.

  "We are here, Egyptian, to enquire further into the death of the young Favorite whose remains you have been preparing for Caesar's rites. We have new questions to ask you. It is official State business," Clarus added as Strabon waved the scroll of authority again. Surisca stood quietly in the background observing the priest's manner.

  "These tents are closed, Senator. We completed our duties long ago, and our holy figurine of the deity is resting in his shrine. We dare not disturb Amun's sleep, Senator. It is a great sacrilege," Kenamun offered as a reason to terminate the visit.

  "Enough Egyptian! Fulfill the law of hospitality and bring us refreshments. We haven't eaten or taken drink in hours, and we won't disturb your god, I promise you," the senator snapped.